This post is the beginning of a series of updates to make up for the slow progress. While I finally defeated my bout of cyanobacteria and my purple mushroom has split and produced another cap, my orange-green zoas were nearly decimated.
The lush dense colony on the branching coral is no more, save a few polyps here and there. At first I blamed the hermit crabs for constantly climbing and perching on top of the polyps. But then I started noticing a very shy and mysterious crab that’s found a hole in one of my live rocks. Round beige body mottled with brown, fuzzy legs and black-tipped claws. So far it sounds like it could be some kind of xanthid crab, which is not reef safe as it’s known to prey on coral polyps and other invertebrates in the tank.
I’ve also been looking into acquiring more corals. This time I figured I should get something that would fill my tank up all at once as oppose to getting another random frag. I was willing to depart with the top rock in my tank in exchange for a rock with multiple corals. Coincidentally, this also happens to be the rock where the mystery crab has made its home.
After an afternoon of coral shopping with a friend, I finally found the perfect rock at Atlantis, the same place where I got my live rock. The rock is more or less the same size as the rock I’m willing to let go and is encrusted with four different types of polyps: daisy polyps (Clavularia spp.), green star polyps, button polyps (Palythoa spp.) and two or three varieties of zoanthids. For me, the diversity of coral polyps on this rock more than justifies the steep $119 price tag.
I rushed home to drip acclimate the rock for an hour.
I removed and isolated the top rock in a separate container. I inspected it thoroughly to make sure I didn’t accidentally remove any good hitchhikers. More importantly, I was hoping I’d find the mystery crab in his hole and be rid of my problem once and for all but the crab was nowhere to be found which means that he’s still lurking in my tank. Now I’ll have to setup some kind of trap to catch him.
Back to the new rock, here’s a top view of it while acclimating in the bag.
I placed the rock in the middle of the tank after it was acclimated. On the left are the various zoanthids with some polyps already open, in the middle are the button polyps, daisy polyps on the right and the purple patch in the back are the green star polyps.
Front shot taken right after it was placed in the tank so the polyps haven’t opened yet. I’m concerned about the green star polyps in the back being too close to the surface.
The water just barely covers the tip of the rock when filled all the way. This leaves the green star polyps vulnerable to being exposed out of the water with normal evaporation. Also, the orange ricordea is a bit too close to the button polyps which is preventing one of the polyps from fully extending. I will have to reposition the rock to find a good angle where the green star polyps are fully submerged and to make sure there’s ample space between the ricordea and the button polyps but I’m letting it alone for now to give them time to acclimate in their new environment.
More to come:
• Lighting upgrade
• Sexy shrimps
• DIY refugium
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